Rear wheelhouse "kidney" rusted...

[arildso]

Hi 😄
On my 78 Targa i found that the "kidney" in the rear wheel houses are rusted and I don't see a way to fix it because the rusted part is impossible to get access for welding. But is this "kidney" important for the structural strength or could it be grinded off ?

If welding is required, i need to cut open the door sills to get access, hoping to avoid that, anybody have a suggestions or recommendations for how to deal with this problem ?


Arild

[faverymi]

Im sure you are going to find some answers here.
Fix it right, fix it once.

Porsche approved 'rusty' Carrera 3.2

[Lake Guy]

Just fixed this same problem in the drivers side B pillar. I cut the sill out and bought a new panel from the host for the final patch. The inside parts I fab'd myself. Access is too hard to fix it any other way.

[Matthew Barnes]

The kidneys on a Targa are far more structural than on a Coupe where you have the roof. That bottom corner of the chassis on a Targa is where all the flex happens. So the kidney's are pretty important. They're a bit beefier than on a coupe for this reason.

Bad news is that unless you're an experienced keyhole surgeon, you're going to have to open up the sill. Besides, if the kidney is gone, the rear end of the rocker is most likely rotten; the rear end of the rocker is welded to the kidney.

Cutting a section out of the rear fender to give you access is the simplest way to get the job done right. Pretty standard procedure. Just make sure you cut in the right place (most apparently do it in the wrong place...including me!)

[arildso]

Thank you all for your links and advices, I`m for sure gonna have this welded:-)
Expected that this kidney was of structural importance, but hoped it didn`t..

But I need to postpone that work and do a temporary fix now so it don`t rust anymore until I find a work shop that can do this work properly. First i need to get the motor back in so I can drive it to a shop :-)